


Rosemary

by JoAsakura



Series: The Language of Memory [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 21:27:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7547797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened in Geneva? </p><p>Mercy has a terrible secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rosemary

It was strange, Gabriel thought as the coffee dripped slowly into the pot. How easy it had been to slide back into a routine. It wasn't perfect- every part of him ached to touch Jack without the barrier of gloves and armour between them, and God only knew how many strained, dirty looks were still cast at his back - but it was more than he'd dared dream once he'd gotten himself free of Angela's medical lab.

The coffee dripped and what passed for his stomach grumbled - they were too long between missions right now and he was so hungry. The patches of decay on his skin were broader, staying longer. It was risky to go as long as he had already gone without feeding. They all glowed so brightly here.

Well, almost, all. He always had trouble sensing Widowmaker. Talon’s modifications put her just on the edge of his ability to sense food and..

Gabriel stopped the thought right there, took a deep breath and turned to the blue-skinned woman he sensed too late in his doorway. “Yes?”

“I hate it here. We should go.” Amelie spat as she strode into the room. Strong words from a woman wearing a garishly orange bathrobe and smoking a shockingly pink cigarette at noon. Both items contrasted terribly with the blue cast of her skin, and she clearly knew it. “I want to go today.”

“So, go. I'll tell the monkey we have to burn this base. You never had to come, y'know, I thought you wanted... ” He sat back on the old couch and put his feet up on a coffee table that was just one step up from a board on some cinder blocks. Winston had done a lot as far as arming the new, not exactly improved Overwatch, but the living quarters hadn’t exactly been a priority. “I just thought you wanted to make a fresh start.”

“A FRESH START?” Widowmaker gestured broadly with the cigarette, as agitated as he’d ever seen her. “These so-called heroes, they hate us, Reaper. We are *not* the same as them, and they would rather see us gone anyways then…” She paused, narrowing her eyes at him, and taking a dramatically long drag on her smoke. “Ah, but you, you want their hate. You like feeling the knife twist in whatever you call a stomach these days for failing to save Overwatch from itself the first time.”

Gabriel forced himself to stay still, feeling the churn of smoke and shadow. “I’m not playing this game, Amelie.”

Widowmaker was undeterred. “No, it's not that, maybe. You love this playing house with Jack-fucking-Morrison. What's next? A little cottage by the sea, perhaps? White picket fence and a dog?” She took another drag on her cigarette and a cold smile curled at her lips. “Oh, and if you adopt Lucio, Hana and Genji, you can even have 2.5 children. Eh, maybe two and a quarter really, I don’t really know how much of him is le…” Her sentence ended in a startled gasp as a mass of black smoke slammed her into the nearby wall, rattling the faded pictures hanging there.

“ **STOP IT, AMELIE!** ” Gabriel roared, then pulled back, catching a glimpse of his reflection in the glass of a nearby frame. Black smoke shuddered and rippled, pulling back to expose inhuman teeth. Too many eyes, burning red, blinked and glared and vanished as his humanity struggled to reassert itself. “You can leave any time you want. But I don’t think you really want to either.” He added softly, turning away.

“Ah, _that_ is the Reaper I know.” He heard her say behind him, and he thought she sounded sad. “I am just suggesting this, so you do not make it worse in the long run.”

Gabriel ran his thumb over his lower lip, the cycle of decay and regeneration frozen in those cells where Jack had kissed him. “Get out.”

~~

Gabriel's thoughts were still churning as he carried two mugs down to the conference room, a wake of roiling black smoke in his wake.

He strode into the darkened room where Jack sat, feet propped on the desk, the glow of a massive wall of monitors the only light. On the screen in front of him were familiar faces. Overwatch, Blackwatch, Support staff. He'd known them all.

He looked at the red lines through some, the circles around the others. Nearby, another monitor played the Geneva explosion newscasts on loop.

“Winston overlaid your kill list…” Jack made a set of hugely dramatic air quotes without turning around. “With the recall database. Were these legit kills, Gabe?”

Gabriel shadow-stepped into the seat beside him, mostly for dramatic effect, and set the coffee down with a loud thunk. “You have to ask me that?” He asked sourly.

“I’m asking because even those these people were drained of their..” Jack started, grabbing for a stack of folders.

“Souls.” Gabriel provided, and he watched Jack’s mouth press into a hard, thin line.

“They didn’t die from that. They didn’t die from a shotgun blast to the face either.” Jack finally turned to him, glasses winking in the light as he dumped a stack of autopsy reports in Gabriel's lap. “They were all poisoned, Gabe. I mean, you were clearly there, you made extra sure people knew that the Reaper was behind these deaths, but you didn’t kill them.”

“What, you’re saying I’m not capable of poisoning someone? That the grim reaper can’t be all subtle!?” Gabriel straightened, suddenly offended as he threw the reports on the table. “I am perfectly able to kill someone without shooting them in the face, you know!”

“That is a goddamn lie and you know it.” Jack kicked at him absently. “What happened with these agents, Gabe?”

They looked at each other in silence, then Gabriel sighed, dark skin rippling with unsaid emotion. Jack took his coffee and waited. “I was trying to hunt down who set the bomb, I had developed a list of suspects.” He gestured at the screen. “They killed themselves rather than talk to me, in any capacity.”

“The scary owl mask doesn’t exactly scream ‘I’m a professional, you can speak to me'.” Jack muttered.

“ _Pendejo_. I mean, they were conditioned to kill themselves if pressed on it.” Gabriel kicked him back. “There was no hesitation.”

“That’s a Talon move.” Jack’s posture shifted subtly, shoulders tensing.

“I thought, if it got out I was killing Overwatch agents, I could get in good with Talon, use them, dig deep.” Gabriel rubbed his face. “It was going great, but before you know it, fucking Winston calls me.”

“You attacked his home, Gabe. But he told me, that you knew he could take the goons that were with you.” Jack snorted. "You softballed him."

“Eh. We never really liked each other anyways. The glasses were just a dick move on my part." He laughed, then sobered. "I wasn’t gonna give them the files, Jack.” Gabriel said very seriously. “I swear to you. I was gonna get out as soon as I had them.”

“I know.” Jack sat back again and sighed, rubbing his face. “Goddamnit, I wish I could remember what happened in Geneva, besides waking up a week later with a bashed up brainpan and our funerals on the news.”

“I think you punched me in the face.” Gabriel watched his profile in the dim light. “But I don’t remember for sure either. There’s a lot of gaps in my memory, too.”

“Makes sense. Angie said she had to scoop you up with a spatula.” Jack glanced over, blue eyes meeting red-black. “Trauma does that.”

“It’s lucky the building was mostly empty. A lot of innocent people could have died.” Gabriel said slowly. “Weirdly lucky.”

He and Jack just stared at each other in the darkness. “What if it wasn’t meant to just blow up the building.” Jack started the sentence.

“… But it was meant to kill the two of us specifically?” Gabriel finished.

“Well, shit.” Jack drawled, looking back at the screen. “Gabriel, what the fuck were we doing that day?”

“I don’t know, Jack. I don’t fucking know.” Gabriel took his own mug of coffee and took a long sip. Not enough sugar, he thought. He wondered if that was a side effect of not properly feeding. A sugar craving. Beside him, there was a low grumble, and he glanced over to watch Jack rub at his eyes. "It's getting worse, isn't it."

"The glasses help, and Angie gave me some pills to help stave off inflammation and pain." Jack reached into his pocket. "I'm out."

Gabriel shifted into a swathe of black smoke, coiling around the back of Jack's chair. Gently, he placed his gloved hands on the top of Jack's head and leaned his chin there. "I need to get some sugar packets from the commissary, you want me to stop in and get a refill for you?"

"I am perfectly capable of fetching my own old man medications, I do not need my undead smoke monster boyfriend doing it for me." Jack leaned back and looked up, squinting. "Gabe.."

"Your undead smoke monster boyfriend doesn't mind getting things for his elderly meat man." Gabriel laughed softly, ruffling Jack's thinning hair. (It was so easy. Playing house, she'd called it. They both wanted it so badly, to pretend none of the terrible things they'd said to each other had never happened. If it was a lie, if it was wrong, well, they were both willing to play that game for now.) " _Te quiero_ , Cornfed."

" _Te quiero_ , Gothy." Jack nudged him, hands briefly reaching back for him. "I'm gonna look at these a little more while you do that."

(They were both willing to play the game for as long as they could.)

~~

The medical bay was quiet, aside from the soft beep and hum of equipment, and Angela's sweet voice as she hummed. Rachmaninoff, he thought. In the bright lighting, her uniform glowed and she looked as much an angel as she did on the battlefield.

It made him desperately uncomfortable. "Ziegler. Mercy." He coughed from the door, stuffing the sugar packets in his pocket.

"Reaper." She turned to him, mouth turning down. "What an unexpected visit."

"Jack needs more of his meds." Gabriel shifted in the doorway. "He's out and he's in pain."

Angela nodded, rifling through her cabinets. "It's touching to see how much you two still care about each other." She mused.

"Old dogs, old tricks." Gabriel took a step into the lab.

"How are you doing?" She glanced back at him. "That patch, it's still stable?"

"Yeah." He ran his thumb over his lower lip. "Perfectly."

"I'd like to run some tests." She leaned back against the counter, holding up the bottle. "I've been thinking. It might be something in Jack's specific makeup. Because of the super soldier enhancements. We might be able to replicate some sort of formula."

"You would do that for me?" Gabriel blinked as he strode over to meet her.

"I would do it for Jack." She countered. "And yes, for you. After all, I put you in there." She poked a finger at his chest. "Sit down on the bench."

Gabriel sat across from her, watching her cautiously. "Put me in where?"

"You're going to feel a little prick." She said pleasantly, bringing a hypogun to his arm.

"I don't.." Gabriel began, but his words died off as the shudder ran through every part of him.

"Containment field." Angela said crisply, and the air around him shimmered blue.

"ANGELA WHAT IS THIS?" Gabriel watched in horror as he began to break down, black smoke filling up the field. Through the barrier, he saw her hair begin to darken from the roots, her suit flickering to a deep red. The halo separated and curved.

And somewhere in his damaged memory, something clicked. "You were the one who'd sent me the new evidence." He said slowly, still pawing at the barrier. "And Jack was on the phone with you when I walked into his office that day. He was crying when he took a swing at me. _You_ told him I was the one working to bring Overwatch down. ANGELA!?"

"Got me!" She sing-songed with a coy smile. "But, I suppose if you want to be strictly accurate, it wasn't _Angela_." She sighed as Gabriel sank to his knees. She spoke quickly, with a lilt in her voice that didn't belong to Mercy at all.  "You can call me Lilith, I suppose. Maybe, Oh!  _Demonia_." She tapped her claws  on the barrier. "Hm. Is that too on the nose, as they say? I can never tell. I was a little present from some powerful friends. But don't you worry. Angela's still in here, and she's screaming right now." She tossed her jet-black hair with a dramatic little flourish.

"We were supposed to die tragically in that blast too - Overwatch's charismatic founders and their beautiful, noble Doctor." She splayed her hand on the barrier. "I did _not_  expect her desire to save you and Morrison to be so strong that she overrode me. And I _certainly_ did not expect you to be able to overwrite the nanomachine fog with your own personality. It's been a confusing time for me, you can imagine."

Gloves fell to ground as Gabriel tried to reassert a human shape. The thick black fog refused to obey, features flickering in and out of the darkness. "Talon." He said, a mouthful of static. (Nanomachine fog. It made sense. It made sense, he had never..)

"Talon is just one piece on the chessboard, Reyes." Lilith shook her head and sniffed. "But, I've monologued far too much. Jack is going to be so sad when he sees that you snapped and attacked me." The woman in red pulled a dramatically sad face. "You always were unstable. And I had no choice but to defend myself... Reaper." She crooned.

"ANGIE NO. I KNOW YOU ARE IN THERE STILL!" Gabriel looked down, sugar packets falling to to floor as his hoodie flopped loosely. " **NO** " It didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. He couldn't feel anything as the smoke broke down into ash piling on ground.

"Angie, have you seen... what are you doing?" Jack's voice from the doorway was soft, but sharp, and she turned, eyes widening as her colouring rapidly returned to normal.

"Jack, I ..." She blinked. "Jack help me. I'm killing him and I can't stop it. I can't stop _her_." Angela blurted out suddenly, gritting her teeth as she struggled. "I'm going to tranq myself. You have to help..." Her arms moved stiffly, as if she were fighting herself, trying to get the sedative out of one of the suits compartments. She fumbled it, the injector clattering to the floor. "JACK I CAN'T HOLD HER!" Angela shouted, her arm jerking. "JACK!!!"

Jack moved faster than Gabriel had seen in years, vaulting over an examination table and grabbing her arm. He nodded sharply and injected her, Angela nodding back, red flickering through her blue eyes, as she slumped in his arms. He rocked her, stroking her blonde hair as he looked at the storm in the containment field. "Gabe??"

Gabriel wasn't sure he had a mouth anymore, no hands to pound against the barrier. (Jack, I'm sorry, I didn't see, I didn't..)

~~

"Get up, Gabe. Please. _Te quiero. Te amo_. Come on. Please. I love you, you can't do this to me again, you fucking asshole."

Jack sounded a million miles away, pleading in English, in Spanish.

And Gabriel...

Opened his eyes, sitting up in a mess of black smoke and confusion. " _Que mierda_????" Jack was there beside him, and McCree, Reinhardt, Pharah in the doorway, all clearly poised to vaporize him if necessary. Fareeha looked as if she might have been crying.

Jack was in his arms, strong and warm, and they were touching and he could feel him under his skin, in his cells, and in a panic Gabriel shoved him back. "Jesus fuck Jack!"

"You're ok. He's ok." Jack said from the floor, with a grim little laugh. "You reset yourself you stubborn son of a bitch."

"Mercy. Angela." Gabriel panted out, looking around for gloves, for anything that would keep him from hurting Jack. "She.."

"She is in stasis." Fareeha said softly, hands balling to keep more tears at bay. "Until we can understand what was done to her, and free her from it."

"She said it went deeper than Talon." Gabriel babbled as Jack picked himself up. "We have to.."

"You have to get yourself sorted. We'll figure it out.Together, as a team." Jack said gently, pushing him back, bare hands on bare skin. "I don't think I'm in danger. Can you guys leave us be?"

"You shout if you need me." McCree said lightly as they turned away. "I'll stay near."

"Jack." Gabriel closed his hands over Jack's arms. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me before, when you kissed me. I'm willing to take that chance right now, dumbass." Jack said. "I was on the phone with Angela right before you came up. I remember."

"I'd gotten evidence. She'd sent me evidence. The thing inside her set us up." Gabriel said quickly. "She.. Lilith... Had been setting us up for months. Angela didn't even know." He paused, then looked at his hands on Jack. "Jack, I'm not even undead. I'm a machine." He added in quiet horror.

"I don't care. You're Gabriel Reyes." Jack replied firmly, pulling him close, and Gabriel fought the urge to flee, let himself vanish for a moment into Jack's warmth. "And that's all that matters to me."

 

 

 


End file.
